My in-person book tour came to a halt with Covid-19, but I'm pleased to share an appearance on BookTV, the C-SPAN program. This talk took place at BookBar in Denver, an independent bookstore where the selection of books is as good as the wine offerings. https://www.c-span.org/video/?466860-1/migrating-prison In the exceptional circumstances in which we now find ourselves, I hope you will consider supporting independent bookstores like BookBar by buying directly from them. [...]
Supreme Court decision highlights need for “New Way Forward” legislation
By Alisa Wellek and Nancy Morawetz In a cruel ruling last month in Barton v. Barr, the Supreme Court upheld a Trump administration position that will deny many green card holders facing deportation the possibility of asking for relief. This decision will put more people at risk at a time when immigration detention and deportation have exacerbated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and there is a national movement demanding decarceration and a halt to deportations. As the pandemic rages, the Barton decision received scant attention yet it has major implications for thousands of our [...]
A conversation with Alina Das & Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia
On Monday, May 4, I'll join two outstanding scholars and advocates, Alina Das and Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, to talk about immigration policing in the United States. Join us! Professors Das and Wadhia both recently published books about various aspects of immigration law and policy. In No Justice in the Shadows: How America Criminalizes Immigrants, Das describes the demonizing bent of U.S. immigration law and law enforcement. In Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump, Wadhia focuses on the important role of discretion in carrying out U.S. immigration law. Both represent the most [...]
Ongoing Litigation over Migrants’ Release Amid COVID-19
By Kim Langona On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Two days later, President Trump declared a national emergency over the COVID-19 outbreak. To date, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 53,922 deaths and more than 957,000 cases in the United States alone. Immigration officials are already empowered to let people shelter in private residences as public health officials advise. According to section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Department of Homeland Security has the power [...]
Close Immigration Prisons Now
Yesterday, I published an op-ed in The New York Times arguing for the urgent need to shut down immigration prisons in the United States. I wrote this with my brother Carlos Moctezuma García, a partner at García & García Attorneys at Law, PLLC. You can read the opinion piece, Close Immigration Prisons Now, on the Times' website. [...]
TEDx Talk: Immigration prison isn’t the answer
Liberty is too precious for anyone to lose it because politicians want votes and private corporations want money. That's what I told the 5,000 people who heard my TEDx talk in Denver last November. Now you can watch too. My talk builds on Migrating to Prison: America's Obsession with Locking Up Immigrants. Since the book's release in December, I've been talking to audiences around the United States about the United States' use of immigration prisons--why we use them and why we shouldn't. Check out where I'll be visiting in the coming weeks. And if you haven't already, I hope you'll pick [...]
“Migrating to Prison” – Denver Law Launch Today
In the weeks since my book, Migrating to Prison: America’s Obsession with Locking Up Immigrants, was published, it has received widespread exposure—from opinion pieces in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times to an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and NPR’s Here & Now. To mark the book’s release, students, colleagues, and friends from the University of Denver College of Law are joining me today for a reading and signing. Watch the conversation live on crimmigration.com starting at 12:00 p.m. MST. [...]
The Great Writ’s Elusive Promise
By Mary Holper In two recent cases, Reid v. Donelan and Brito v. Barr, a federal court in Massachusetts limited ICE’s power to detain people. But by requiring detained immigrants to file habeas corpus petitions to get a bond hearing in immigration court, Chief Judge Saris of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts undercut the strength of her own clear-sighted analysis. Reid and Brito are both class actions challenging immigration detention. For Reid class members, they must file a habeas corpus petition arguing that their detention under a 1996 mandatory detention statute, [...]